New Arrivals: The Best Recent Book Releases

Set in a submerged city where a girl and her father live among outcasts, Thien’s latest is a profound meditation on memory, political exile, and storytelling. The Financial Times called it "a marvel of research and imagination...Thien's dazzling historical somersault doubles as a plea for humanity."

A CNN anchor and an Axios political correspondent team up to deliver a behind-the-scenes chronicle of President Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign. Drawing on hundreds of interviews, they chart the administration’s internal fractures, the concealment of Biden’s health struggles, and the mounting tensions within the Democratic Party. "Superbly reported," wrote The Los Angeles Times. "Reads like a Shakespearean drama on steroids."

The Fun Home creator returns with a witty, self-aware graphic novel about creative paralysis and personal delusion. "Bechdel is incisive, tender, and funny--often at the same time," praised Kirkus Reviews.

In this memoir, the acclaimed novelist and Pulitzer Prize finalist author of Wednesday's Child confronts the devastating loss of her two sons to suicide. Through grief, literature, and the rituals of daily life, she crafts a meditative record of survival. “Li’s astonishing account of how she has chosen acceptance over despair shows why the artists among us sometimes offer more wisdom than any other form of spirituality,” wrote the Los Angeles Times.

Hailed in The New York Times as “a naturalist who can unfurl a sentence with the breathless ease of a master angler,” Macfarlane brings his signature lyricism to this urgent meditation on rivers as living beings. Blending philosophy, law, and deep ecology, Is a River Alive? asks what it would mean—to our politics, our ethics, and our imaginations—to truly listen to water. "Personal as well as political, Is a River Alive? is almost as certain to shift readerly perspectives as it is to be a bestseller," praised The Guardian.

Barry Diller recounts his rise from the mailroom at William Morris to founding Fox Broadcasting and leading IAC.With insights into producing classics like Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Simpsons, Diller offers an unvarnished look at Hollywood and digital media evolution. "One of the better show-biz memoirs to appear in recent years," declared Kirkus. "Highly instructive for would-be tycoons, with plenty of entertaining interludes."

In his follow-up to On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Vietnamese American author Ocean Vuong crafts a luminous novel set in a working-class Connecticut town. A young man’s suicide attempt is interrupted by an elderly widow with dementia, sparking a bond that redefines both of their lives. Kirkus Reviews describes it as “a sui generis take on the surprising and cruel ways violence is passed on across generations.”

In this stylish thriller from the author of The Expats, a luxury building’s quiet Manhattan doorman becomes entangled in a conspiracy involving elite tenants, global surveillance, and personal revenge. "Page-turning from the opening paragraph to its killer finale, the narrative combines noirish atmosphere with a sharp attunement to the particular depravities of ultrawealthy urbanites," praised Publishers Weekly. "Pavone's provocative look at the city that never sleeps will keep readers up well into the wee hours."

"A complex and sobering work of dystopian science-fiction, infused with horror and set in the contemporary art scene, Immaculate Conception is as much about the blurred lines of friendship as it is the frayed boundaries between art and technology... Immaculate Conception asks sweeping questions about art, originality, and ownership, as well as trauma, co-dependency, and love. Huang's latest is a hit." - Elle

Crooked Media podcast host Leah Litman examines the transformation of the U.S. Supreme Court, highlighting how fringe theories and partisan agendas have influenced its decisions.With sharp insight, she critiques the court's departure from established legal norms.